Cleveland Orchestra player hierarchy can be hard to decipher

ROGER MASTROIANNI / COURTESY OF THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA Cleveland Orchestra concertmaster William Preucil, left, in performance at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami. To his left is assistant concertmaster Yoko Moore, and behind him is first associate concertmaster Peter Otto. Each player has unique duties that aren't necessarily clear from such similar-sounding titles.

Many people claim not to comprehend classical music. But music itself is a cinch compared with orchestral hierarchy.

Open any Cleveland Orchestra program to the roster page. There, next to all the names, you'll encounter an array of similar-sounding titles, including associate principal, assistant principal and first assistant principal. One player is first associate principal.

Confusion naturally follows. Even those well-versed in orchestral practice can't help but wonder what such labels mean, especially because the terminology and duties attached to each title vary from section to section and from one ensemble to another.

"Even after 20 years, I'm still confused about why things are the way they are," said Carol Lee Iott, the orchestra's personnel manager, who came to Cleveland from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

"It doesn't always seem to be logical, and it can be hard to articulate coherently."

Perhaps no other position in the orchestra piques more curiosity than that of concertmaster. Besides sitting conspicuously on the conductor's left, the job's duties are often far from clear.

Well, it's a weighty role. In Cleveland, concertmaster William Preucil greets the audience, leads the orchestra in tuning, handles orchestral solos and determines bowings. Like other principals, he's the voice of his section, but behind the scenes, he's also a prime liaison between the orchestra and management.

The duties of those sitting around Preucil in the first violin section can be just as mystifying. Why, for instance, do we have both an "associate" and a "first associate" concertmaster, and why are there two "assistant" concertmasters?

In a word: Because. All orchestras have concertmasters and assistants, but maybe not so many. Rather than follow some rigid, military-style protocol, the Cleveland players have established their own tradition over many years as individual musicians have gravitated in different directions.

It helps to think in pairs, Iott said. Preucil and assistant concertmaster Yoko Moore form a unit, as do first associate concertmaster Peter Otto (whose position music director Franz Welser-M st created in 2007) and associate concertmaster Jung-Min Amy Lee. Assistant concertmaster Lev Polyakin is also in such a relationship, with violinist Takako Masame.

Together, this sextet contains enough talent to cover the roles of concertmaster and backup concertmaster when players are ill or on vacation, or the orchestra is divided in half for purposes of touring or special repertoire.

"It gives us a certain stability of leadership that remains constant," Iott said. "It allows us to have that same depth no matter the configuration. If any of them is out, we're able to adjust accordingly."

Complicating matters further is the fact that, unlike inthe corporate world, orchestral titles such as associate and assistant don't necessarily imply the player is on track to succeed his boss. To become principal, assistants have to audition for the role just like anyone else, and plenty of gifted musicians spend their entire careers as assistants or associates.

Nor does compensation follow rules common in business. Yes, titled players are paid more than nontitled players, but each musician has a unique salary that takes into consideration his or her specific duties and factors such experience and seniority.

While the situation in the upper first violins is anomalous, similar patterns are in place elsewhere in the orchestra. Each section, in fact, can be seen as a musical fiefdom, with leaders who play high-profile passages and oversee a portion of the population but also report to the music director.

"You can't have 10 or 12 people all asking questions of the conductor at the same time," said first assistant principal cello Richard Weiss. "There has to be a chain of command."

Within each domain, too, there's a unique dynamic governing how players interact. Influencing each are factors such as size of the section, the nature of orchestral music and the character of the instrument.

Large, cohesive sections such as second violin and viola naturally operate differently than smaller sections such as flute, trumpet or clarinet, in which each player is or can be a soloist.

Recently, as outgoing principal cellist Desmond Hoebig has begun his departure from the orchestra, Weiss started handling some of the duties of acting principal. The rest of the time, though, as first assistant, he thinks of himself as a "wing man," a kind of vice president on hand to advise and carry out the wishes of the principal.

"Anything the principal does, I help to reinforce or make clearer," he said. "It's something I totally enjoy doing."

But the job also can be stressful. Assistants in every corner of the orchestra must live with the possibility of being asked to fill in for the principal.

Often such rotations are built into the calendar, covering planned time off or giving the principal a scheduled rest. The latter is especially helpful with an instrument like the horn, which is physically taxing to play. But life is unpredictable, and there's always a chance the principal will bow out without warning the night of a concert.

"You're the person they turn to if the principal is suddenly ill," said Barrick Stees, the orchestra's assistant principal bassoon.

"It's part of the job to be ready to play major parts on short notice. It keeps you fresh."

Got all that? Good. Because there are numerous exceptions.

On paper, Mary Kay Fink is a member of the flute section. In practice, though, she's also the unofficial head of the piccolosection, which comprises just her.Ditto for assistant principal clarinet Daniel McKelway, who also acts as chief E-flat clarinet, and oboist Robert Walters, who also plays lead English horn.

Associate principal horn Michael Mayhew also serves as section head (in lieu of official principal Richard King) when his colleagues convert to Wagner tubas in works by Bruckner and Strauss.

But the most erroneous misconception of all is one that has nothing to do with titles or duties but rather workload: that membership in the Cleveland Orchestra is a part-time gig or some sort of high-caliber hobby.

In fact, it can be more than a full-time job. Between maintaining their instruments and rehearsing, practicing, performing and touring, many players work more than the traditional 40 hours per week, irrespective of their title.

Much of that time is spent at home, in the practice room. For in the Cleveland Orchestra, showing up for rehearsal or performance in anything less than peak form is not an option.

"The number of hours in performance may not seem like much, but the pressure is always high," Weiss explained. "You never want to feel unprepared.

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